New Art House Division @ Paramount

Paramount Pictures is aiming for the indie film market with its new Paramount Vantage division.

Film studio Paramount Pictures on Friday unveiled a new division called Paramount Vantage aimed at releasing low-budget films with broad appeal to capture audiences in the expanding independent film arena.

The low-budget, or "specialty" divisions of major studios have become increasingly important in recent years because the movies they produce and release are made for relatively small amounts of money, but can reap huge profits if successful.

The studio already has the Paramount Classics division for specialty films but it too now is getting revamped.

As part of Friday's announcement, the company said Paramount Classics would continue to exist, but now focus on films with a more narrow appeal such as foreign-language movies and documentaries like the upcoming global warming film "An Inconvenient Truth," which also is screening at Cannes.

I took all of this as good news as it increases the odds of local cineplexes offering more options than films from the non-blockbuster piece of crap adapted from a comic book ilk. However, this little bit flummoxed me:

Paramount Vantage aims to release eight to 10 films a year, ranging from low-budget comedies and horror films to sophisticated art house fare such as "Babel," starring Brad Pitt, which premieres this week at the Cannes film festival.

"Brad Pitt" and "sophisticated art house fare" just don't seem to be able to co-exist in the same breath, do they?